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Exorcist, The
| directed by = William Friedkin | written by = William Peter Blatty | produced by = Noel Marshall William Peter Blatty David Salven | music by = Steve Boeddeker | cinematography = Owen Roizman | edited by = Norman Gay Evan Lottman Darrin Navarro | distributed by = Warner Bros. | release date(s) = December 26th, 1973 | mpaa rating = | running time = 2 hrs. 2 min. (122 min.) | country = | language = English | budget = $10,497,444 | gross revenue = $193,000,000 (US); $441,071,011 (Worldwide) Box Office Mojo; The Exorcist | preceded by = | followed by = Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) }} The Exorcist is an American feature film of the horror genre, dealing with themes of demonic possession. It is an adaptation of the 1971 novel of the same name written by author William Peter Blatty. Both the novel and the film were inspired by actual events relating to an exorcism performed upon a boy identified by the pseudonym Roland Doe (his real name was never made public), which took place in the 1940s. The film was directed by William Friedkin with author Blatty providing the screenplay for the film. It was produced by Warner Bros. and premiered in theaters on December 26th, 1973. The movie earned itself no small measure of notoriety due to its controversial subject matter and graphic depiction of a young girl in the throws of demonic possession. The spectacle surrounding the movie quickly garnered itself cult status amongst fans, and is now considered one of the most iconic and influential horror films of all time. The Exorcist stars Ellen Burstyn as film actress Chris MacNeil with Max von Sydow as the practiced clergyman Father Lankaster Merrin. Jason Miller plays younger troubled priest Father Damian Karras and Lee J. Cobb portrays the sarcastic police detective and film enthusiast, Inspector Bill Kinderman. The real star of the picture however is Linda Blair, who had the burden of portraying young 12-year-old Regan MacNeil. Plot Cast Notes * Exorcist, The (1973), The Exorcist and The Exorcist (1973) all redirect to this page. * Principal shooting on The Exorcist began on August 14th, 1972 and concluded on July 20th, 1973. * The director's cut of The Exorcist contains ten minutes of footage that was deleted from the original film. * The Exorcist was released on Blu-ray on October 5th, 2010 by Warner Home Video. It includes the original theatrical version of the film as well as the extended director's cut. * Playing the role of Father Damian Karras is the first professional acting work for Jason Miller. * This is the final movie role for actor Jack MacGowran, who plays Burke Dennings in this film. Jack passed away on January 30th, 1973, nearly a year before The Exorcist was released to theaters. He was 54-years-old. Fun Facts * The tagline for the film is, "Somewhere between science and superstition, there is another world. The world of darkness." * In the "Phantom Traveler" episode of Supernatural, Dean Winchester makes reference to floating over a bed and vomiting pea soup. Two of the symptoms of Regan's possession is levitating above her bed and projectile vomiting. Pea soup was used as the prop for this scene in this movie. * In the unaired pilot episode of Charmed, the character of Phoebe Halliwell says that "her head spun around and she vomited split pea soup", which is another reference to the scene where Regan vomits on Father Karras. Recommendations External Links * * * The Exorcist at Wikipedia * * * * * * * References Keywords Clergy; Demons; Priest; Washington, D.C. ---- Category:Films Category:1970s/Films Category:1973/Films Category:December, 1973/Films Category:Based on a novel Category:1st installments Category:Theatrically released films Category:Warner Bros. Category:E/Films Category:William Friedkin/Director Category:William Peter Blatty/Writer Category:William Peter Blatty/Producer Category:Noel Marshall/Executive producer Category:David Salven/Associate producer Category:Owen Roizman/Cinematographer Category:Norman Gay/Editor Category:Evan A. Lottman/Editor